A nursing student attending Pinellas Technical Education Centers
(PTEC) in Largo, Florida was told to use a restroom located in a
“storage area” after officials learned she is transgender.

Alex Wilson, 25, has been living as a woman for four years. She
is identified as female on her Florida driver's license and Social
Security card.

She has been enrolled in the public technical school since
November 2012 and used the women's restrooms at PTEC before July 8,
the day school administrators informed her that she could no longer do so.

Officials told Wilson that they would press criminals charges
against her if she used the women's restroom.

She was told that she would have to use either a restroom in a
separate building in what an official termed “the storage area,”
or a faculty men's restroom which was kept locked and for which she
would need to obtain a key from an administrator.

“It's a small restroom in what looks like a storage part of the
administration building,” Wilson told WFLA
News Channel 8. “There's some cabinets, cleaning supplies.”

ACLU of Florida LGBT rights attorney Daniel Tilley said in a
statement: “PTEC administrator had no problem with [Wilson] until
they found out she was a transgender woman. The school says their
mission is to provide students opportunities to develop workplace
skills. Stigmatizing and humiliating Alex does not advance this
goal, and it teaches terrible lessons to future healthcare
professionals about how to treat diverse populations.”

“The fact that PTEC administrators only started treating Alex
differently from the other students when they found out she was
transgender makes it clear that this is discrimination, plain and
simple,” Tilley added. “We call on Pinellas County to make this
right.”